Spring Break!! Woooo

Hellooooo everyone!! So I am officially on spring break, if you haven't guessed! Last week I spent my time split between Groningen and Amsterdam Netherlands. I went on this trip with my school, so it was half academic and half leisure. We did a bunch of tour to schools to look at their programs but they also gave us a bunch of time on our own and scheduled some of our cultural visits for us. One of our first nights we went to the Anne Frank House. It was really amazing. It is a shock to see how they actually lived and what they had to go through on a daily basis. It was incredibly powerful. On the more fun side though, we had a great time walking through the red light district!! The girls were really fun to look at actually and it wasn't nearly as sketchy as everyone made it out to be. We went at night and it was incredibly touristy. We happened to be there at the time of a Holland vs Scotland soccer match so the district was filled with men in kilts which was pretty funny. It was really entertaining to watch all the guys reactions to the women. Some of them were really gross, but some of them were downright embarrassed by it, which was equally funny. In the middle of the district there is a giant church which was pretty ironic, but hey, it was still pretty. Unfortunately you can't take pictures in the district, so I can't really show you, but believe me, it was really cool
Otherwise Amsterdam was a lot of fun. The canals are absolutely gorgeous. We also got to go to the Van Goh museum. Right now they are having a special exhibition on his work at night which means i got to see all of his great masterpieces from around the world!!! they had all of his original starry nights and some of his great portraits. I got chills when I saw it!!
Right now I am sitting in Athens though and taking in the Grecian sun. Right now its kind of cloudy actually, but still warm. So far I have seen the acropolis and the parthenon which was amazing. I have also gotten hit on by a ton of creepy old men, which is also especially greek. I will tell you more about this trip at the end of the week. Hope you are all doing well!!!

SEE YOU IN 6 WEEKS!!!

Holy Cow, I am on Spring Break!!!

Its already March 21st on my grand adventure. For those of you who are counting, that means that I am halfway done with my semester. I can't decide right now whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. I am having such a great time here that I think I will be really sad to leave, especially since I have made some very excellent friends here. On the other hand, I miss everyone at home like crazy though!! It still makes me happy to think about how many weeks I have left until I see everyone again. I am just such a homebody!!

So as my title reads, I am on spring break officially!!! Our break lasts for 3 WEEKS!!! I am so excited that I don't have to go to class for a while. It'll be so nice not to have to get up and go. Tomorrow morning I leave for Amsterdam and don't return until very late on Friday evening. That Sunday I leave for Greece, to Athens to see Hilary Carr (my best friend ever) until the following Sunday. Then I take a few days off and go to Sweden with my family here for Easter Holiday. WHEW!! I am going to be tired and dazed after these few weeks. I am glad I am giving myself a few days to catch up on rest and do homework for a little bit. I don't know if I could go for that long!!

Last weekend was the beginning of the traveling however and I went to Hamburg Germany for the weekend. Let me tell you Hamburg was a great city. I went with 6 friends, so we had a pretty substantial group, but it didn't matter. We went all over the city and saw pretty much every old church there and even got to go all the way up to the top of 2 spires. The most fun part of Hamburg was by far the fish market! Who would have thought? It was just like the images you see of the Seattle market with the throwing fish and the giant (German) men shouting at the crowds. The best part was the fact that the Germans were drinking at 7am and there was a live band. Who would have thought?

That's all for now! I will try and update when I back from Greece (I know, Greece!!!)

Love you Miss you

IT'S MARCH ALREADY

Holy Cow! Where has the time gone??? It's March already! I have been here officially for 1 and a half months. Who would have thought that I would have made it this far and not have come screaming home? I sure didn't. It's been a crazy month filled will ups and downs, but I am loving being in CPH. Denmark is finally starting to show signs of spring. The sun comes out at least once a week now and it is light until almost 6!!! I never thought I would be so happy about so little, but there you go. When I arrived just a little while ago the sun came up at 8:30 and set at 3:30, now we are up to about 7:15 and 6, which is a humongous difference. It is supposed to continue to get more and more light all the way through July. When I leave in May they tell me there will be something crazy like 18 hours of sunlight. I can't wait for this to happen!!!
This Month is travel month for me and my fellow American students. I just booked a tickets to go to Hamburg for the weekend of the 14th with a few of my friends. We're taking a train in and spending two nights at a hotel there. On March 22 I start my 3 week travel break from school. I will be spending a week in Amsterdam and the following week in Greece, my third week is up in the air still, but there is a good chance I will spend some of my time here relaxing and some of it at my family's lake house in Sweden. If it turns out I can't go with them, I may just book myself a ticket to Paris and go on a little adventure by myself. Who knows.
Otherwise nothing much exciting has taken place since the last time we spoke. I am struggling a bit with one of my classes and I am going to see tomorrow if I can drop it still. It looks like I should be able to, but let's cross our fingers just in case. I also got to experience my first festa lavn last week. It is a tradition similar to Halloween. I dressed up as a prom queen for lack of better costume alternatives!! It came out good though. I also went to see Katy Perry ("I kissed a girl and I liked it....") and 3Oh!3 in concert which was quite the adventure as I went by myself and the buses weren't running that day due to a strike. It was a fantastic concert!!!!

More later, but I miss you very much and send my love!!

Long time no see!

So after a whole 2 and a half weeks, I have finally remembered to update my blog! I'm sorry it has taken me so long, but it's been a crazy couple of weeks here in Denmark. On February 1st I got to move into my new kollegium, Egmont. Its like a dorm, but we all share a kitchen and cook together. I love it here!!!! The person who had the room before me left the majority of her stuff for me because I am only subletting the room. This means that the room came with furnishings, decorations, a tv, and an entire cd collection! It really feels like home here. While it is difficult to make friends with the people here I have definitely started to become closer to the people I am living with. They are all Danish students and they have all known each other for a very long time. It's hard to be the outsider when they are already friends and speak in another language together. I can't tell them to speak in English, I just have to hope they will find something to talk to me about eventually. But I am good at being patient and eventually someone always talks to me. There are moments when it is lonely still, but for the most part I feel comfortable with the people I live with.
Just last week I went on a trip with my program to Western Denmark. We went to see Hans Christian Anderson's house and went to Aarhus, the 2nd largest city in Denmark. It was a lot of fun. At HCA's house we got go to the children's museum which is set up like a fairy tail complete with costumes to put on and facepaint. We ran around like we were five, it was excellent.
Otherwise classes are going alright. I like all of my classes except for my history class. I actually failed my first test in that class!!! But fortunately its not worth much of my grade and my grades don't count this semester. I have to say, I don't love the study part in study abroad.
I also booked my ticket to Greece for spring break which means I am officially off to visit Hilary, my best friend from home. It will be amazing. Next week we are booking train tickets to go to Hamburg for an earl weekend in March with a few of my friends here. I am really looking forward to this trip. I may also be going to Sweden with my family that I have here over Easter weekend. I feel like such a world traveler!!! Becky is officially coming to Denmark at the end of April and we will be going to Prague while she is here! And I am going to Amsterdam for a week with my school. I'm off to see the world apparently!!
From now on I am going to try and update the blog once a week, mostly on Sundays I think. Sorry it's taken me so long to update this time. For the first time I am truly enjoying Copenhagen and I am really enjoying being here. It's the experience of a lifetime and I am truly glad I came. I've learned a lot about myself and I think I really have grown so far in the 4 and a half weeks I have been here. There's nothing like being in a foreign country to make you into a stronger and more independent woman. I miss you all very much though and I am looking forward to seeing you again in May!! Only 3 more months!! Love you all!!

PS. I'm not sure if you can properly read that sign I posted, but we found that in a bar and thought it was really funny!

Surviving Week 2

Hello again from Copenhagen!

I have survived my first 2 weeks of Copenhagen! Horay! There was a little while where I thought I wasn't going to make it . I am very proud of myself for getting this far. The first two weeks are supposed to be the hardest, so I am very excited that they are over. They certainly lived up to the difficulty level everyone told me about!!
Last Sunday I went to Frederiksborg Castle, the royal palace of King Christian IV. It was soooo beautiful. The inside was incredibly ornate and beautiful. It is full of antiques and paintings, it has almost all of the family seals in it from the entire royal family and nobility. This castle really reminded me of a real castle. It was grand and ornate and everything you expect from something 400 years old.
This week was my first full week of classes as well. They are going to be incredibly difficult I am thinking, even more so than Smith. I am doing a practicum with children for one of my classes and I got to meet my children on Thursday. They are amazing!! It was probably one of the most fun days I have had so far in Copenhagen. My children are between 5-9 and speak little to no english as well. They do however know how to insult me and tell me that I am an idiot while pointing and laughing. They think they are funny, which is actually pretty true. Otherwise though, it is pretty easy to communicate with them. We are playing the whole time, so I join in games I know or can catch onto quickly. It is amazing how much can be spoken through physical contact and pointing.
I went to see the famous statue of the little mermaid this week as well! She is beautiful, albeit anticlimactic. The Danes are very proud of their statue, but it turns out that she is incredibly small and not very mermaid-like. It was really cool to actually she it though after we had heard so much about her.
This week coming up is going to go by incredibly fast. Tomorrow I officially get to move into my new residence. I will finally be able to unpack and get settled. I am so excited for this I can't even describe it. I am also really nervous because I have finally gotten settled here and now I have to meet a whole new group of people all over again while also relearning bus routes. Unpacking will make it all worthwhile though. Wednesday I am planning on going to Sweden for the day with some friends into Malmo, which is the closest city to Copenhagen. They are connected by a bridge and you can take the train over there, it only takes about a half hour. We plan on just walking around and claiming victory in our first international travels. Then this weekend we are off to Western Denmark on a short Study tour with our program. We leave on Thursday and arrive back on Saturday. That basically leaves me with Sunday to do all of my homework. Let's hope I do it all in time!!!

I love you all and hope that you are doing well. I miss you terribly!! Leave lots of nice comments

Hamlet's Castle and Bar Night

Hello Everybody!

Yesterday was an amazing day for me. I was able to go to Hamlet's castle and see the surrounding area Elsinore. The castle is known as Kronborg and was the residence of many of the famous kings and queens of Denmark. Overall the town was very quaint and small. It's full of little shops, most of which either sell wine or are bakeries. Both of which are fine with me! The castle itself was really beautiful. The Danes are known for being very modest so the inside was not ornately decorated, but it was still old and historic. Our guide refused to show us where the ghost in Hamlet appeared because he says it is not based on historical fact. He also took us into the dungeon and through the bottom of the castle. It was incredibly freaky and looked pretty damn haunted!! I met a bunch of really awesome people during the trip and we all ended up hanging out together for the remainder of the day.

Now for the fun stuff!! Yesterday night the people I met and I went to the bar to go hang out. I had my first Carlsburg, a very good Danish beer. Although I don't love beer too much, it was actually pretty good. Once my friend posts her pictures I will be sure to add a picture of me drinking my beer!! It was the first night I got to go out since arriving in Copenhagen, so it was good to get out of the building and see nightlife in the city.

Today I am going to Frederiksborg Castle which is a Renaissance castle in Denmark and then when I get back it's time to crack down on some serious homework to get ready for classes tomorrow. It will be our first full week of classes!! eee! But I am really excited to get into the swing of things. It's must easier to adjust when you have a routine.

So all in all things are good here. I miss everyone terribly and although I am having a good time, I can't wait to see everyone in a few months.

Love you, Jenny

Hej fra København!

Hello from Copenhagen!!

For the next couple of months I will be updating the blog with pictures and synopses of what I am doing in and around Copenhagen. I hope that you can access this and see all about the adventures I have been having!! I''m going to post a few pictures on the blog. If you want to see more, you should get a facebook and friend me!!! I am sure to have many albums there by the end of the semester and I would love to share them with you all.

So far in Copenhagen I have been having a pretty rough time. On top of leaving the country for the first time and being extremely jet lagged, my housing situation was horrible. When I arrived my room in my kollegium (a type of Danish dorm) was not ready so they put my in the guest room. Any of you who have spoken to me or mom and dad know that my guest room was in fact a janitor's closet with no bathroom, internet access, or kitchen access. I was living in hell for 3 days!! After a minor mental breakdown in the housing coordinators office, I was put into temporary housing down the street in a dorm of all American students. While this is very very nice compared to my other room, I am very excited to move out on February 1st into my real room. I will be living with all Danish students and I will really be able to immerse myself into the culture. Who knows, they may even help me with my Danish homework! All together though, I will have moved 3 times since I have been here. It's been really difficult, but it keeps getting better everyday.

On one of our first days of orientation we did a scavenger hunt around the city and got to go to all of these amazing places. We went to King Christian IV's summer home, Hans Christian Anderson Park, Ameliarbor (Queen Margarethe's Palace), Parliament, and we even got to see the new opera house via a water bus. The day was beautiful and of course I forgot my camera, so a friend and I did the walk again and took pictures. Unfortunately my computer won't upload them right now, but don't worry I stole a bunch of other peoples pictures which are just as good and from the same day!! The one that I am putting in the blog is the main Lutheran Church of Denmark. It is beautiful outside and in!!! The architecture here is very quaint and beautiful. Row houses are colorful and quirky and the city is full of fun mixes of styles from every era.

Tomorrow I am going to Elsinore, Hamlet's Castle and I am very excited for this. The day after I am going to King Christian IV castle. If you haven't guessed King Christian IV is a BIG deal in Copenhagen. He planned almost the entire city and is responsible for some of the most famous buildings in and around Copenhagen. They forget that he almost made the country go bankrupt!! Monday I am having dinner with a visiting Danish family. Its a program similar to host family, but I don't have to live with them. They seem very very nice so far and I am thrilled that I get to make that kind of connection here.

That's all for now. Check back for more updates! I would love to hear from all of you. Love you and Miss You LOTS